Apple’s haptic trailer for “F1”
Apple TV+ has released a new trailer for the “F1” Brad Pitt movie, which uses haptics to make iPhones shake as cars zoom by.
“F1” could actually be the last big-budget Apple TV+ cinema release, as it follows a series of flops. Those failures have been partly put down to Apple’s lack of marketing — and that’s not a criticism that can be made anymore.
From regular trailers and promo ads, through an unusual high-profile plugging during the WWDC 2025 keynote, Apple has been pushing “F1” — and now it’s gone further.
Only available on the TV app on iPhone, Apple has released a new trailer with haptic effects. It can be watched solely by launching the TV app, where it currently appears as the first of a series of promo trailers at the top.
There are already multiple “F1” trailers — from a teaser to the official full trailer and then also one promoting IMAX — and visually, this is similar to all of them. It shows Brad Pitt’s character being recruited, it hints at tensions between the F1 team, and it features a lot of high-octane car driving shots.
The difference here is that when an F1 racing car starts up and roars out onto the track, haptic feed back shakes the iPhone. It manages to feel as if it is only shaking one side, too, as if it really is vibrating because the car went out of frame on that edge.
There is an extra effective moment where there is no feedback, no sound, and just a brief blank screen, but most of the time there is haptic movement at every opportunity.
That obviously is mostly during race footage and it does add to the visceral feeling as cars take tight corners. But there is also a small moment of Pitt bouncing a ball and that gets a subtle effect too.
“F1” will be released in US theaters on June 27, 2025. It gets a worldwide release shortly before that, on June 25.
